# Markdown in the terminal

> Read READMEs, runbooks, and Markdown notes with styled headings, code panels, tables, and terminal-aware output.

Coming in Elide 1.6.3. Open a `.md` or `.markdown` file with Elide to read it as a formatted terminal document.
Use it for a repository's README, an operational runbook over SSH, or development notes without leaving the shell.
No Elide project is required.

## Read a README or runbook

```shell
elide README.md
elide docs/runbook.md
elide run notes.markdown
```

Headings establish a visual hierarchy; lists, quotes, tables, and code panels make longer documents easier to scan.
Prose wraps to the terminal width, and fenced code blocks receive syntax highlighting for recognized languages.
Code blocks are displayed, not executed.

CommonMark syntax is supported along with GitHub-style tables, strikethrough, and task lists. For example,
save this as `runbook.md`:

````markdown
# Check the service

- [x] Generate configuration
- [ ] Verify the health endpoint

```shell
curl http://localhost:8080/health
```

| Response | Next step |
| --- | --- |
| 200 | Continue deployment |
| 503 | Check application logs |
````

Then run `elide runbook.md`. Links retain their destinations, and raw HTML is displayed as text.

## Page through a long document

Elide prints the rendered document to stdout. Pipe it to a pager such as `less` when you want to scroll:

```shell
elide docs/runbook.md | less
```

Piped output is plain by default. To retain terminal colors with a pager that understands ANSI escapes:

```shell
elide --color docs/runbook.md | less -R
```

`--no-color` and the `NO_COLOR` environment variable take precedence over forced color. If `NO_COLOR` is set,
remove it from the environment before using the color example.

## Save a readable text copy

Disable colors explicitly when saving rendered notes for a log or an artifact:

```shell
elide --no-color notes.markdown > notes.txt
```

This writes the terminal rendering, including its layout, rather than converting Markdown to another document format.
The source file remains unchanged. `--quiet` also preserves the rendered output.

`--format` is for [Pkl and PCF output](https://elide.help/docs/pkl-configuration) and is rejected for Markdown files.
Document rendering also rejects `--sandbox` and `--limit`. See the [CLI reference](https://elide.help/docs/cli-references) for command options.